Strictly Good Fun

Saturday, 7 November 2015

Amazingly, Strictly Come Dancing is now in its 13th series. Despite the departure of stalwart Bruce Forsyth at the end of series 11, the show’s popularity continues unabated. With all the dramas and gossip that surround the show each year, it’s not surprising it still attracts an impressive prime time audience.

Some of the most memorable highlights from previous years include Julian Clary’s double act with Craig Revel-Horwood. Craig is considered the pantomime villain of the show and has been known to reduce contestants to gibbering wrecks with his caustic comments. Julian, however, was having none of it and championed much of the nation’s thoughts with his comedy comebacks and refusal to be intimidated.

Who could forget the artistic stylings of John Sergeant? A man so left-footed he eventually volunteered to leave the show out of embarrassment. Despite featuring in the bottom two every week, he was endlessly voted back in by an underdog-loving public. He finally walked from the show in week 10, in case he ended up winning, which he felt would be a travesty under the circumstances!

By far the most memorable dance so far this series has been Jay McGuinness and Aliona Vilani, dancing an astonishingly technical jive to the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction. The dance was performed during week three, when most of the contestants are still discovering their feet (and their partner’s toes!). The footwork can only be described as hypnotic and I am confident it will go down in Strictly history as one of the defining moments of the show, alongside other classics, such as Sophie Ellis Bextor’s Charleston and Abbey Clancy’s Samba.

As of the start of this current series, there have been six male and six female winners overall. Which is an interesting result, as there is often much debate over who has an easier time on the show. The men have to learn to do some complicated lifts as the show progresses, but the ladies have to be lifted, which does require an element of bravery. There is also some disadvantage attached to the costumes required by the female contestants. As Ginger Rogers once famously said of Fred Astaire; “I did everything he did, but backwards and in high heels.”

Tell me do you follow the show? Can you dance? Do you love the outfits as much as me? *PR collaboration